SpaceX capsule returns to earth with four astronauts from the International Space Station

The fourth team of astronauts carried by SpaceX to the International Space Station (ISS) returned to earth on Friday, successfully completing a scientific mission of almost six months.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, carrying three American NASA astronauts and an Italian cosmonaut from the European Space Agency, undocked from the ISS at 1605 GMT and parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean off Florida at 2055 GMT.

The four astronauts, dressed in black and white space suits, were placed in the crew cabin shortly before the spacecraft separated from the station, which orbits about 400 kilometers above Earth.

A series of brief rocket pulses then autonomously pushed the capsule away from the ISS and lowered its orbit to align the capsule for subsequent atmospheric re-entry and splashdown.

In less than an hour, recovery teams had hoisted the heat-scorched Crew Dragon into a recovery ship before opening the capsule’s side hatch and helping the four astronauts out one by one to breathe. fresh air for the first time in more than 24 weeks.

Still wearing their helmeted black and white spacesuits, their strength and balance sapped by 170 days of weightlessness, the four crew members were helped onto special stretchers as they waved and waved at the cameras.

Freedom’s crew, Americans Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines, as well as Italian Samantha Cristoferetti, arrived at the station on April 27. Watkins became the first African-American woman to serve a long-term mission aboard the ISS.

That crew had been designated “Crew-4,” the fourth full group of astronauts flown to the ISS by SpaceX since the private rocket company founded by Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk began flying with NASA staff. in May 2020.

Her departure came a week after her replacement crew, Crew-5, arrived aboard the station: a Russian cosmonaut, a Japanese astronaut and two NASA crew members, including the first Native American woman sent into orbit.